DH World Cup Rd 8 - Val di Sole - Preview & How to Watch

Away this weekend but may try and tune in on RedBull TV on the phone... not exactly ideal.

Pierron for the win on weekend and Rachel to make a shock appearance and win 😉

Isn't it Höll, and not Hoell?

It's a shame there's not a closer finish in the men's race, but it should be a great weekend we'll the same.

@malv173 so, the font I use for the pod doesn’t include the umlaut, so the first time I interviewed her I asked her advice & she said it should be Hoell if you don’t use umlaut. I’m never sure if the umlaut is web safe so I’ve chosen to play it safe ever since 🙂

It's also a XC round.....

Wny TV up for track walk (THE best way to get the best interviews and gossip!)

Good to see Reece back, looks like he was actually pretty messed up till he realised hence the extended break off the bike.

Laurie Greenland ftw this weekend I reckon - Amaury Pierron is not one to be conservative but the odds are so far in his favour he surely will just put a run in and get down in one piece.

Laurie has had some good results, been very close a few times to another win and in the interview above hes got the 'just gonna go all in' mentality that the last race of the season sometimes brings.

Interested to see if Valli can win - she is mega fast but seems to get spooked sometimes, we know she can physically be the fastest but her success comes from her head.

It’s also a XC round…..

Sorry George! That's a useful bit of info. Cheers!

I find all the points, etc, a bit mindboggling, so I thought I'd get my computer to Do Maths, and this is what I discovered.

Currently the standings are[1]:
* Balanche 1335
* Hoell 1216
* Nicole 1155
* Farina 951

And so far as I understand, qualies points for the final round are added to the race day points, so points up for grabs are:
* P1 250, P2 200, P3 170, P4 150, P5 130, P6 111, P7 94, P8 82, P9 70, P10 60, P11 45, P12 35, P13 25, P14 15, P15 5

Obviously there's no way for Farina to take the overall, so the people who could win are Balanche, Hoell, and Nicole.

Hoell v.s. Balanche:
* if Hoell gets P1, Balanche must get P4 or better to win overall,
* if Hoell gets P2, Balanche must get P5 or better,
* if Hoell gets P3, Balanche must get P11 or better,
* if Hoell gets P4, Balanche must get P13 or better,
* if Hoell gets P5, Balanche must get P15 or better.
* if Hoell gets P6, Balanche wins whatever.

Nicole v.s. Balanche:
* if Nicole gets P1, Balanche must get P10 or better to win overall,
* if Nicole gets P2, Balanche must get P14 or better,
* if Nicole gets P3, Balanche wins whatever

So maybe the ideal for Balanche would be for Hoell to have a World-Champs-confidence-inspired mistake to allow a fired-up Nicole to take P1.

Still, it's quite an ask for a freshly-plated collarbone to ride that track at all! It will be an exciting race.

[1] https://www.redbull.com/int-en/uci-mtb-world-cup-overall-standings

Racing underway at the moment.. not sure on if spoilers are allowed so all I will say is the Junior mens winner was 6 secs faster than the fastest elite qualifier. That is nuts.

A very sad day for downhill, you’re going to be sorely missed, Rob.

Well that was a fitting end to the season, thought “someone” was bringing a win home but not to be, next season for sure. That overall winning trophy though?, looks like a chunk of fence post.

Yeah, glad the rain stopped early, made for very good racing. It's been a few years since I've been to Val de Sole, it looks so rough nowadays.

was there today - my first ever round

**** ME !  It's unbelievably fast, and rough and, err fast and scary and then quite fast, too

We were yards away from what looked a bloody awful crash (Luke Meier-Smith maybe?? - not sure if it was televised).  Brought it all home a bit (though he rode away to a DNF after quite a long "sit")

The chainsaw action was immense 🤣 - who knew people are adding exhaust trumpets to the things to increase volume (at least that's what it looked like.  IANALumberjack )